Indestructible, Invincible
by JunKing
Summary: Loosely based on characters from my Untold Tekken Stories, this takes place years after Peter and King have met. With an illness fighting to claim him and King no longer being around, Peter fights to gain back the love of the man he calls father.
1. Birthday

"I think he'd like this one better."

"Are you sure? it's a bit more expensive than the first model I showed you."

"I'll take it."

King's birthday was approaching in just days. Peter had braved the crowds of the nearby shopping mall for about two hours. It was Black Friday and the sales were impressive enough to get even the most reclusive individuals to leave the security of their private homes. Peter looked forward to King's birthday more than King himself. This was because King meant the world to him. It had been years since he first met the older man. During these years, Peter began to look at King like the father he never had. Sure he had a father, but Peter's real father died when he was still a young boy. In spirit anyway. He physically died when Peter was a young teenager.

At first, he mourned the loss daily but over time, he began to feel no more remorse. This was because his father was abusive and a poor excuse of a man. Peter always had to dig deep for fond memories of him. The deeper he searched, the more he realized that these memories were rare. Instead of smiles and the warm embrace of his father, he remembered tears and the cold, shivering embrace of his own arms wrapped around his ribs after a beating. Instead of fishing trips on Father's Day, he remembered his old man watching television and keeping to himself. He remembered being attacked by bees in the backyard at just four years old and screaming for "daddy". Daddy never came. Daddy was too busy taking a nap.

He remembered watching as his mother hid in the bathroom, door locked, listening to her cries and screams as his father pounded on the door to get after her. The sting of a plastic cup ricocheting off a wall and hitting him instead of his mother. The way his knees would tremble whenever he received a poor test grade and knew he would be verbally abused and deemed not intelligent enough to be his kid. He remembered the feeling of his face against the floor, his father jumping on top of him and beating his small frame until it felt nothing anymore. So in a way, his father's untimely death was a chance at freedom for Peter. Months after the bastard died, sighs of relief would often leave Peter's lips when he looked out of the window.

However, one thing remained. He still wanted a father to guide him. Someone to give him tough love and motivate him to move forward. Someone to tell him that everything would be okay, that one day he would look back on this and laugh. Someone to take him fishing and to show him old photos from his college days. A man to teach him to be independent, to fight for what he believed in and to defend himself against anyone who disrespected him. A father figure to remind him which tools to use when looking under the hood of his car. No such man existed.

Peter went through life knowing that something was missing. He knew he lacked a piece of his heart. This piece would be the thing that often held him back from being a better person. However, this all changed one day when Peter met King. At first, he thought it was a crush on the mysterious older man. This was due to the fact that his heart knew no form of love for too long, and he didn't know what his heart was trying to tell him. It took a few months, but he eventually started to realize that this man was something more than that. He was the father figure that Peter would often go to sleep and dream about having been given to at birth. The man that he would've loved to go fishing with. The one that he could've gone camping with. The father that he could've made special cards for on Father's Day or taken out to dinner on his birthday. He had almost exactly everything that Peter thought he would want from a father.

What helped him feel this way was the fact that King seemed to trust him and open up to him with information that would be for his ears only. King would be stressed and tell him secrets and parts of his life that not many others were privileged enough to hear. King wanted kids of his own, but due to unfortunate incidents, he never received his wish. He himself even acknowledged the bond, told Peter that he didn't know why he told him these things, but that he wanted them to remain with Peter alone. And so he did as he was asked to do; guarding King's thoughts, jokes, and young life experiences like gems hidden beneath the sand. Peter wanted to become the son he never had.

King protected him from others and stood up for him when no one else would. He taught him how to be a stronger person, to rise from a scared little hurt boy and stand into the role of an intelligent and tough young man. He taught him how to fight, how to defend himself from those who would want to hurt him like so many others had done in the past. And in some ways, he was successful. King's constant pushing caused Peter to get a license, buy his first car, look into higher education. Because of King filling in the empty void he once felt, Peter found himself wanting a better future.

Before meeting King, Peter actually spent months contemplating suicide. He would sit in his bed and imagine what it would feel like to sleep forever, what it would be like to never feel pain again. That was the future he had seen for himself. He pictured himself dying much too young; having barely started to ascend the roller coaster of life, but being okay with getting off the ride early. At the tender age of thirteen, he had already attempted to take his own life. He took a belt and wrapped it around his throat as tight as he could, strapping the buckle so far against his skin that he could feel the air halt deep within his lungs. Tears fled his eyes when he saw nothing and nobody to live for. Somehow, something told him to stop. Something told him to push on. Even now at the age of twenty-four, he liked to think it was because he was meant to meet King someday. He was meant to find a father figure to make up for all the harsh realities he had been forced to endure.

And here he was today, holding a brand new watch for the man he considered his father. But something was wrong. As he went home and began to wrap the birthday gift, he struggled to see the paper through tear filled eyes. During the past few months, his depression had worsened to the point where he no longer knew who he was. Unfortunately, after years of looking after Peter, this began to make King distance himself a bit. Peter was left to believe that King no longer cared about him, though he knew that couldn't be true. King had done too much for him in the past, had taught him too many lessons, had too many personal conversations with him to have never cared. He even told Peter that he was like the son he never had. Hearing that made Peter the happiest he had ever been in his life. He remembered a year ago being told that and walking around the rest of the day feeling indestructible, invincible. He had finally done it. He had proven himself to King and finally achieved the impossible. King saw him as his own. Countless nights, Peter would watch the sky and wish upon stars. As juvenile and childish as it sounded, it gave him a sliver of hope that he would be able to change his destiny. He would have a father, he would show King how much he loved and appreciated him. All the stars he wished upon, all the coins he tossed into fountains in the mall when nobody else was looking; those moments all seemed to resonate deep within his head.

But now, things seemed to be getting bumpier than normal. His depression seemed to be pushing people away. And now it seemed to be pushing King away. But the thing was, the more he tried to make things right between the two, the worse they seemed to get. He tried everything; talking to King about his condition, joking around, buying him snacks, getting him Father's Day gifts and personalized cards, expensive birthday presents. But it was to the point that lately, King seemed to not even want to deal with him. Often, they would bump into each other in public places and Peter would pretend not to see him. To his surprise, King would leave as soon as he could, thinking in his mind that he had not been seen. This caused a deep swelling in Peter's already destroyed heart. Was he going to lose another father? Was he going to lose the man who gave him reason to live again? Was he going to lose the friendship that had kept him motivated, the same one that kept him thirsting to get back on that roller coaster called life?

He'd been here before with King. They had their fair share of fights, one of which ended physically leaving Peter injured. But King would always come around and apologize in his own little way, and Peter would always forgive him and continue to do his best to protect his father. There had been so many times that Peter protected King from danger that he never even knew about. From people who tried to bad mouth him, people who tried to betray him. He felt like he would die for him if need be. Never before had he felt such a strong attachment to someone like this, someone who he felt saved his life and gave it meaning.

Now every time someone made King laugh, every time someone made King smile, made a joke for only him to hear, sat down with him to enjoy the view; Peter found himself angry and jealous. What was he going to do to get back King's approval and love? He knew it was there but how to pull it back? This, he didn't know. Once again, he found himself slipping into darkness. His mind tickled his negativity, whispered to him that King didn't care anymore. Told him that he was just like everybody else and that he would leave him alone to suffer just like his birth father did.

It was to the point where Peter found himself wanting to give up. Again, he would sit in bed and wonder what it would feel like to sleep forever. What would it feel like to feel no more pain, no more betrayal? At this point, Peter finally finished wrapping the watch that he had bought for King's birthday. He had done a horrible job, as he was never that good with any sort of arts and crafts. It was another small detail that he knew King wouldn't even notice, but to him it gave a feeling of accomplishment. King deserved the best in his mind, because this was the man who gave him hope, the man who showed him fatherly love, the man who made him want to get out of bed every morning and face life guns blazing. The man that no matter how this whole situation turned out, no matter if he never talked to Peter again; Peter would always secretly watch over him. This was because the term 'father' didn't make him think of the bastard rotting under the ground back home. It made him see King in his mind first and foremost. No matter what King choose to do, Peter would always know him as one thing and one thing only:

Dad.


	2. Memories

It had been one month since King's birthday. Peter tried to impress him with his gift as well as a thoughtful card but his timing was off. He caught King on a busy day, leaving King to thank the younger man and have him on his way. Peter remembered feeling like all hope was lost as he left King's house, watching as the pavement drifted along beneath his feet on the way back to his car. It troubled him that his father figure didn't even bother to open his gift, or at the very least, read the card he had been given.

Little did Peter know, King did read the card later that day. What he read surprised him as well as the gift. It seemed expensive, something Peter wouldn't even buy for himself if he had the money. It was then he realized he'd been distancing himself from the young man on purpose. He felt that he wasn't going to live up to the expectations he was being seen under. It wasn't that he didn't care about Peter, he did. However, he just didn't know how to handle being seen in such a light. All his life, he'd been tough as nails. He kept all his feelings to himself and was always a very private person. So when he took Peter under his wing, he knew he was walking into unfamiliar territory.

Personality wise, the two men were opposites. Peter was open about his feelings, quick to approach someone and try to talk to them about things that bothered him. While it wasn't highly difficult to tell what kind of mood King was in, he would never talk about it. If he did, it was short and sweet. He was a man of few words but that didn't mean that he couldn't feel. Whenever the two argued, Peter would be the one trying to get King to speak more about what the issue entailed. When his father figure ended the conversation and averted all emotions, Peter would be left feeling unappreciated and alone. This wasn't the case at all.

It was when King was by himself that he would reflect on prior events. All his thinking and reasoning was shared with nobody but himself. Today was a bit different. After reading about how deeply Peter valued his guidance and bond with him, King decided it was time to let the boy speak to him without interrupting. It started with a thought. King always wondered exactly why Peter never talked about his father. So after having spent some time with him today, he turned and said, "If you don't mind me asking, do you have any fond memories of your father when he was still alive?"

Right away, Peter looked to the ground and sighed. It was obvious that he was trying to collect his thoughts and come back with a well thought out response. After a few seconds of silence, he looked back up to meet King's eyes, a sarcastic smirk making its way across his lips. "I don't think that's possible, King."

"Why not?", asked the masked man. Peter broke eye contact and looked to the sky above his head, locking his hands together.

"I can't give you any fond memories of him, but I can give you one of the strongest. I remember this like it was yesterday. Second grade, Ms. Simonetta's class. I was always horrible with math and my parents didn't really like to help me with my homework. So instead of struggling on my own with the assignment, I stole a kid's paper, erased his name, and put my own on it. His name was Joel." Peter paused to laugh at himself before taking a breath and continuing on.

"I know what I did was stupid, but kids do stupid things. It's a parent's job to teach their child right from wrong, as well as being patient with them. My teacher called my mother, my mother told my father…and I had no idea what was coming." As Peter spoke, King did his best to stay quiet and listen. Usually, he would interject and try to end the conversation but he knew Peter needed to get this out of his system.

"I got off the school bus later that day and walked to my uncle's driveway. My parents and I actually lived with my grandparents at this time, but they would always pick me up at my uncle's house. Closer to school, less money to waste on starting me up at a new school. My mother drove a van, middle seats pulled out so that there was more space to carry things around. Usually, my father would sit in the passenger seat and I would just hop in the back. But something was different about today. He was waiting for me in the back of the van. I guess trying to get myself out of trouble, I tried to give them an art project that I'd made earlier that day. _I got a surprise for you guys, _I remember saying. _Yeah, I've got a surprise for you too, _was what my father said." King noticed it seemed to be getting a little harder for him to speak normally, but Peter did his best to act unaffected.

"He told me to get in the car and close the door. Once I was inside, he told me about my teacher calling and how he knew about the homework…he told my mother to drive…and as soon as we pulled out of the driveway, he jumped on top of me…and started beating the hell out of me." As Peter said this, King's eyes widened slightly. The visual he'd gotten from this encounter disturbed him. Peter continued to speak, trying to add humor in the tone he used. King shook his head. There was nothing humorous about what he was hearing.

"He just kept pushing my face into the floor…slamming me down by my shoulders, wailing down on me with his arms…spitting in my face and cursing at me. This happened for the entire ride to my grandparents house, which was probably a little over twenty five minutes or so. My mother let him do it too. Every now and then when she realized the beating was probably being seen by others outside the car, she would turn around and tell him to calm down. But she never tried to stop him." King's quiet nature was being tested, but he restrained his comments.

"When we got to the house, the bastard told me never to tell anybody about what just happened in the car. He told me that if I did tell anyone, I was going to get it. I didn't know what to do. I was hurt, sore…but mainly just scared out of my mind. I was only eight years old, King." With that, Peter finished speaking and took another deep breath. Unsure of what to say, King reached forward and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Peter, I just want you to know that what your father did to you was horrible. If you were my kid, I would've never done anything like that to you." said King.

"I know you wouldn't have."

"And I also want you to know that I never will." As King said this, he gently squeezed Peter's shoulder before letting go. The young man looked up at King, exhaled to himself and then smiled. Hearing that from the one man he'd learned to trust meant the world to him. As for King, although he would probably never tell him, the card that Peter wrote touched his heart deeply. He knew that just like Peter viewed him as the father he'd always wanted, Peter would most likely be the closest thing to a son he would ever have.


End file.
